


The Dragon with the Really Stinky Breath

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: First Age, General
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 12:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3767615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A children's story of dwarves, traders, and humans in Ossiriand in the First Age.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dragon with the Really Stinky Breath

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

Once upon a time in the Land Between the Rivers there was a village with its very own dragon.  (Most dragons are evil, having been bred by Morgoth.  But just as some Men and Elves turned to serve him, so too a few dragons left Morgoth's service.  This is a tale of one of those.) Most dragons breathe fire, so this dragon was a very unusual dragon.  He couldn't breathe fire, and as a result, his breath smelled really bad.  In fact, it smelled so bad that the little boys and girls in the village hated to play around the dragon, even though one of his jobs was to guard them from danger.  On a really bad day, if he blew at the little boys and girls, his breath would knock them over and the bushes would die!

  
So the little boys and girls complained to their parents.  And their parents, because they were good parents and loved their boys and girls, listened, and talked to the dragon.

  
They said, "You do a good job of guarding our children, but our children don't like to be near you.  Your breath is so very bad, it even kills the plants!  What can we do?"

  
The dragon was very sad.  "I know that my breath is bad.  The reason it is so bad is because I can't breathe fire.  Dragons clean their breath by breathing out fire.  I've never been able to do that."

  
The villagers thought and talked among themselves.  They didn't know what to do.  They weren't experts on how to take care of dragons.  In fact, dragons hadn't lived with people for very long.  So they decided to send three of their strong young men to the Naldor in Hiring who lived with Maedhros  to ask what they could do.

  
The young men traveled very quickly to Himring.  In just four days they were there.  After they rested and ate, they went to find the wise Noldor lords.

  
The first young man told the lords, "We have a dragon that guards the children in our village and protects them.  He is a very friendly dragon, but his breath is very bad.  It is so bad that the children do not like to be near him, and so they run away from him, and he can't guard them.  We're afraid that someone will be really badly hurt because he isn't there when they need him."

  
"Yes," said the second young man, "and, his breath is so bad that he kills the plants.  Why just last week we lost nearly an acre of wheat because of his breath!  We can't go on like this!"

  
"Well," said the one of the oldest and wisest of the Noldor lords.  "Why don't you just send him away and get a different dragon?"

  
"Hmmm," said the third and youngest of the young men.  He hadn't spoken yet, because it was polite to let the older people go first.  "We hadn't really thought of that, I will admit.  But this a kind dragon, and we do not want to hurt him.  And if we send him away, he could become very angry at us, and do a lot of damage."

  
"Yes, that is true," agreed the other young men.

  
The Noldor were puzzled.  The young men were not happy, because what would they do if even the wise Noldor lords did not know what to do?  But they had an idea.  "Let us talk with you tomorrow evening, and we will have some ideas then," they told the three young men.

  
So the next day, they walked around Himring.  They saw the warriors training.  They saw archers with their bows shooting at  targets.  Men and women warriors attacked each other with swords and spears and axes.  They saw axes and knives thrown at trees.  Warriors jumped, and ran, and practiced falling.  The young men were amazed at all that they saw.  They tried to remember everything so that they could tell their families when they returned to their village.

  
That evening they had dinner with the lords.  They were very nervous, because they thought that if they didn't mind their manners, they would be turned into foxes or rabbits.  But the lords were very kind.

  
They explained their ideas.  "First, we think that you should try old, moldy, smelly cheese," they informed the three young men, waving their hands in the air as they talked.  "We think that the stinky cheese might counter the smelly breath and cause the dragon to begin breathing fire."

  
A younger lord spoke up a few moments later.  "If that fails, and you must remember that we do not know," and he emphasized the word know, so that they would understand that they did in fact not know, "we do not in fact know that the smelly cheese will cure the dragon."

  
After the soup and the biscuits were finished, the eldest and wisest of the Noldor lords continued.  "If the cheese does not work, then you must try to scare the dragon.  I must tell you that this could be dangerous.  If you succeed and the dragon does in fact regain his fire, then scaring him could cause a forest fire, or anyone around him to be burned.  You must be very careful."  And he looked so serious, that the hearts of the three young men sank into their boots.

  
The youngest of the lords continued after a few minutes.  The three young men felt almost hopeless.  This young Elf lord had a twinkle in his eye.  He smiled.  "Don't be so glum!  There's another way, but it is long and difficult, but I am sure that it will work."  The three young men began to look more hopeful, and they felt their spirits brighten.

  
"Yes," he continued, "I am sure that if the other methods do not work that this one will.  You must send five people to the mountains far to the East, to the northern part of the Ered Luin, beyond Mount Rerir.  There in the high meadows you will find a red flower.  You must pick as much of this as you can, and dry the flowers.  Then you must carry them back to your village and make a strong tea by boiling the dried flowers for four days.  When that is done, let the tea cool and give it to the dragon.  He will drink it, and then his fire will come."

  
"But why should we try the other methods if this one is sure to work?" asked the three young men.  They might be young, but they weren't stupid.

  
The youngest lord laughed.  "You are so right to ask!  It will take you days, perhaps a week or more to travel Mt. Rerir, and some time to dry the flowers, and then more time to return.  Try the other methods first, but prepare for your journey.  Perhaps it will not be needed after all."

  
The three young men thanked the lords profusely, and went to bed.  Early the next morning, they left and returned home where the villagers waited for them eagerly.

  
When they arrived home, they found six trees dead, two children who were unconscious from the dragon's breath, and four acres of wheat that had been burned as well.  The villagers had banished the dragon to a long distance from the village.

  
The eldest of the three young men told them what the lords in Himring had instructed them.  "First we should try feeding the dragon old moldy, smelly cheese.  Then if that does not work, we should try to scare the dragon.  But we must be very careful.  If his fire comes back, we could be badly burned."

  
The youngest of the three told them the third method.  "Five of us must go to the mountains far to the East.  There we will find red flowers.  We must collect and dry all that we can, and then bring them back and make a very strong tea and give it to the dragon."

  
The villagers thought and were glad of the news.  They immediately made three plans.  The first plan was to find all of the old stinky cheese that they could.  There was a lot in that village, and by adding more to it from other villages, they were able to find two large baskets full.  The next plan was to find a way to scare the dragon.  The last plan was the one that they hoped they would not have to use.  They found four people ready to go.  They were the four young men.  One of them brought his younger sister, and so that made five.  They found four strong horses to ride, and two to carry their supplies.  They began to collect the food they needed, extra clothes and weapons.

  
Two days later they collected the two baskets full of cheese and took them out to where the dragon was.  The grass was brown, and the leaves had fallen off the nearby trees.  The problem was becoming more serious.  They looked at each other.  Who would approach the dragon?  His breath was so very bad that no one could stand being near him.  Finally an old lady with a bad cold volunteered.

  
"I can't smell anything anyway," she commented.  And so she took one basketful of cheese and dumped it on the ground in front of the dragon.  Then she went back and got the other basketful and did the same with it.

  
The dragon sniffed at it, then stuck out his long tongue.  "Yuck, yuck, yuck," he growled.  "This tastes horrible."

  
"Yes, we know," explained the leader of the village elders.  "But the wizards think that it might make your fire come and your breath would not smell so bad."

  
The dragon looked very doubtful.  "Maybe," he muttered, but he took a bite anyway.   After three big bites the first basketful was gone, but he was very thirsty.  He went off to the river and took a big drink.  When he returned he looked at the rest of the cheese, grumbled to himself, "I hope this works," and then ate the rest.  After a minute, he let a very big burp, and three people nearby fainted because his breath was still so bad!  The rest of the people who were standing there had to run quickly because the branches on the trees also fell off!

  
"So much for the first method," the leader of the village elders muttered to himself.  They then tried to find some brave people to scare the dragon.  After several days of looking and persuading, they found three very brave (or perhaps foolish) young men with nothing better to do.  Then they had to decide how to scare the dragon.

  
They decided to wait for the dragon to get a drink of water at the river.  For three days they watched the dragon, and found that he liked to drink in the evening, right before he slept.  They decided that they would wait for him in the bushes near the river and rush out at him with fire torches, yelling and screaming as loudly as they could.  Surely that would scare the dragon!

  
The next day they got shields to bang on, and prepared their fire torches.  They hid in the bushes in the late afternoon.  They lit their torches just as they saw the dragon coming down the path toward them.  Just as he passed the bushes, they rushed out yelling, screaming, waving their torches and banging on their shields.  The dragon was very frightened.  He was so very frightened that he ran right into the river!  Well, if he did breathe any fire, it went out in the cold water of the river.

  
The next day the dragon caught a cold.  Now a dragon can be a fierce creature, and an angry, fire-breathing dragon even terrifying.  But a dragon with a cold is just miserable, and angry and not much good at anything.

  
Well, there was no hope for it.  The group would have to go to the far mountains.  By this time they had packed their food, and prepared themselves for the journey.  The next morning they set out.

  
The entire village (including the very crabby, miserable dragon) saw the group off.  They watched them go until they were specks on the horizon.  No one knew how long it would be until they would see them again.

  
Now the leader of the group was named Trosel, and he was a hunter and a farmer.  His younger sister was good at cooking, and had very sharp eyes.  Her name was Tronyé.  The other three men were cousins of Trosel and Tronyé, and their names were Isel, Dinyó, and Lifel.  Isel was the oldest of the three, and Lifel was the youngest.  He was only fifteen, but he was very strong for his age.

  
They followed the Gelion River as it went north.  They did not know it, but they passed through the ancient Kingdom of Carn.  That kingdom had ended in a battle long ago.  But they knew little of the history of the area, although they were descended from the Carnians.  Soon they had to cross the river so they could reach the Trader's Road on the other side of the river.  They didn't know it, but they were about to embark on a great adventure.  They found the ford across the river, and crossed it without any problems more serious than getting wet to their waists.  After their wetting, they made camp.  Lighting a fire would keep them warm and help them dry out.  Their first night on the road they slept well.  The next day they also made good time, and passed by the site of the Battle of Harniel that ended their ancestor's kingdom.  That night they did not sleep as well, because they scared each other telling ghost stories.  They were after all young people, and they did enjoy scaring Tronyé, who was young and pretty, and liked to be scared.

  
The next morning they met a group coming toward them.  Tronyé saw them first, because her eyes were the sharpest.  After her warning, they left the road and hid in a grove of trees near the road where they could see who it was that was passing by.  "It's merchants and traders," exclaimed Isel as they passed by.  "I recognize the leader.  He was in our village last year."  Trosel agreed after a couple of minutes, and they left their hiding place and went toward the travelers.  The travelers stopped and drew their swords, thinking that they were about to ambushed by thieves or bandits. But when they saw Tronyé, and that the others were all young, and that they had not drawn their weapons, they put theirs down.

  
The leader of the traders called out, "Where are you from?"

  
Trosel, as the leader of the group answered back, "We're from the Village with the Dragon with the Bad Breath!"  Such was the fame of their problem, that their village was known by that smelly name!

  
The two groups came together and talked for some time.  The traders learned what goods the villagers would be interested in buying and trading for.  Trosel's group explained their errand.

  
The traders told them, "Continue on this road.  It will lead you to the north east.  You will come into Wide Pass, and in front of you far away you will see tall mountains.  Those are the mountains that you seek.  The roads fork there, and if you keep to the south, you will come to the Trader's Villages.  They can help you there, and give you directions for how to find the mountain valley that you need."  So the two groups continued on their way.

  
The next three days went by quickly and easily.  The group traveled on the road, and saw no one else.  The weather was beautiful.  They enjoyed the clear blue skies, and the warm weather.  In the afternoons it clouded over as the clouds built over the large forest to the west.  They thought that they might get wet, but the clouds sped on to the east, eager to dump their moisture on the mountains.  They went through Wide Pass, and saw the tall mountains to their north and south joining together.  The road they followed bent to the east as they approached the Trader's Villages, just as the trader's group had told them.   As they went, they talked about their quest.  What would the mountains be like?  None of them knew.  None of them had ever been so far from home.  Trosel had traveled a lot because he was a hunter, and also when he had gone to Himring.  But most of his travels had taken him south.  There were clans of sheep and cattle lords, warring and feuding among themselves.  He did not know these northern lands.  At the end of the third day they reached the Trader's Villages.

  
The night they reached the villages it began to rain.  The traders warned them that the roads would become mud very quickly, and that they would have to stay.  So that night and the next two days they spent in the villages until the roads had dried enough to travel on.  They spent their time telling the traders about their quest.  The traders were very interested, and wanted the group to bring back extra flowers with them.

  
"We will trade with you for them," they were told by one of the leaders of the traders.  "You never know when something will come in handy for us to have.  We have barns full of items that you might think were useless, but sooner or later, someone wants it.  Then all we have to do is find it!"  At that he laughed, and so did many of the others.  When the four were shown the barns, they laughed too.  The barns were huge, and there were many of them.  It could take days to find something.

  
They also spent time studying the route that they had to take.  "Take this road east until it forks.  Then take the left fork until it dead ends.  A few miles north is another road that goes east into the mountains.  Take that one, and it will lead you into the high mountain valleys.  The Dwarves live there, and keep the roads in good order.  But they may charge you a toll if they find you."

  
At that Trosel looked upset, but would not say why.  Later he told his sister, "I never thought that we might need money."  She looked thoughtful, but did not answer.

  
The next day she disappeared.  Trosel and his cousins searched frantically for her all day, but could not find her.  Exhausted, they fell asleep after the evening meal.  The next morning there she was, looking smug and happy, but she refused to tell where she had been, or what she had been doing.  That afternoon they set out again and camped that night at the junction of the road.  Ahead of them were the tall mountains, growing closer with every step.  Never had they seen such a sight.

  
In the morning they went north, the mountains on their right.  They turned their heads often to look at them.  Shortly after mid-morning they moved east, and the road stretched ahead, winding up into ta distant canyon. The snow covered peaks towered behind.  That night they camped in the canyon.  The road was in very good shape, and there was lots of water in the nearby stream.  It was cold and clean water.  As they sat around their fire they talked.

  
"So where were you two days ago?" asked Isel.  He and Tronyë were close friends.

  
She smiled, shook her head, and answered,  "I won't tell you yet.  But what I was doing was important for the Traders, and it will help us as well.  Trust me."

  
Well, they could get no more out of her than that.  So they talked of what they might expect, but to tell the truth, none of them really knew.  None had been in the mountains before.  Dinyó took out a penny whistle and began playing.  Soon Lifel and Isel were asleep.  The others joined in, and last Dinyó fell asleep in the middle of a tune, clutching the whistle.

  
During the night they had visitors.  Three passing Rangers saw them and stopped to look.  They covered the travelers where they slept, as they had not covered themselves up.  The nights are cool in the mountains.  Then the Rangers went on their way, as silent as owls' flight.  Their dark grey cloaks blended into the night and they disappeared.

  
The next morning they awoke refreshed.  Nothing exciting happened to them that day.  They rode and rode, and the road twisted up into the canyon until at last they came to a meadow above where the trees grew.  Then again they slept because traveling in the mountains is very tiring.  Their horses grazed.  Again that night they had visitors, or rather observers.  They were very short, stocky men with long beards.

  
"What's this?!" exclaimed one.  "Visitors, and they hasn't announced themselves!"

  
"You're right!" returned the second one.  "What shall we do with them?  Take them prisoner tonight?"

  
"No, if they meant us harm they would not have brought a young woman with them," explained the first.  "We'll watch them until we see what they are doing."  And so they did.

  
They slept late the next morning, and found their horses grazing when they finally woke.  After a slow breakfast, they looked around them.

  
The mountains were covered with flowers of all colors.  It was as if a rainbow had come down to earth.  No one could speak, because their breath was gone.  All around them towered snow and rock covered mountains, pushing up against the sky as if they were holding up the sky.  The only sound was the faint breeze and the rushing of the stream near them.

  
Finally they began to move.  They found the red flowers and spent the rest of the day collecting them.  The next day they also collected them.  The next two days they dried the flowers.  The flowers were very dainty, and it was so sunny that they dried quickly.

  
Finally they had collected as many bags as they could, and they were ready to leave.

****  


  
The journey back was easier, because they knew what to expect.  Going downhill can also be easier than going up.  Their journey was enjoyable.  They were young, and the trip was easy.  The mountain air was warm and crisp, and the scent of the mountain pines filled the air.  They continued mile after mile.  Suddenly, as they rounded a bend, a band of short, stocky men blocked their path.  The men were armed, and there were over a dozen of them.  The travelers stopped and looked at each other in great fear.  What should they do?  They were unarmed.  Isel, the oldest of the three brothers, and a very strong young man grasped his walking staff hard until the knuckles on his hand turned white.  He took several steps forward, and quietly, but firmly, said, "Who are you, and what do you want?"  Lifel, the youngest of the cousins, stepped forward and stood next to his brother.

  
The two brothers stood there watching the Dwarves.  The Dwarves didn't answer, but stood there holding their axes and spears.  Finally, a Dwarf with a very long bushy beard stepped forward in front of the others.  He had a golden helmet with a large boar on the top of the helmet.  "Youze is trespassing here in theses mountains," he said gruffly.

  
The travelers looked at each other.  Finally Isel said firmly, "We saw no signs, we saw nothing that said that this was your land."

  
Dinyó, who had been quiet until now, spoke.  "Do not Dwarves live underground?  How then do you say that this is your land?"

  
The chief Dwarf did not speak.  The tallest of the Dwarves responded quietly.  "We claim the mountains above and below."  Now none of the Dwarves or travelers knew that a band of Rangers was watching them nearby, ready to step in if necessary and help the two groups solve their problem.  That's how Rangers worked.  Quiet and in the background, ready to do what others could not.

  
Isel asked, "What do you want?"

  
The chief Dwarf told him, "We want a toll.  No one travels into the mountains without paying a toll."  Now the travelers were annoyed and upset.  They looked at each other.  

  
"I knew we would need money," said Tronyé.  "What shall we do?  We have no money!"

  
The Dwarves looked at each other, and began muttering angrily.  "What are you doing here, then, if youze has no money?"  


  
Tronyé went to the front and stood by her two cousins.  "We mean you no harm," she said.  "We have come to gather the red flowers that grow here so that we can make a tea.  We want the tea so that it can make our dragon get its fire back.  It's breath is really bad, and its bad breath won't go away until it gets its fire."

  
The Dwarves scratched their heads.  This was a new story for them.  They hadn't heard such a story before.  They weren't too interested in flowers for a toll, either.  No one knew what to do.

  
It was Tronyé that had the solution.  Speaking to the Dwarves and her fellow travelers, she began her story.  "When we were on our way here we stopped in the Trader's Village.  I visited their trading barns.  Do you remember how full they were, and how everything was really jumbled?"  The other travelers did remember.  Trosel said, "Yes, and I remember that we couldn't find you for a long time."

  
"Yes, that's right," she replied.  "I was in one of the barns.  I had found some very beautiful jewelry."  At the mention of jewelry the Dwarves' eyes got large.  Dwarves love jewelry, precious metals, and beautiful jewels.  "There were designs there that I had not seen before.  I gathered all the jewelry that I could find and sorted them by the designs that were on them."

  
The chief Dwarf asked Tronyé, "What were these designs like?"

  
She looked at him, closed her eyes, and then replied, "There were four pieces that were the most interesting.  The first was a large brooch.  It was round and had a clear stone in the center, that was a rectangle, cut on the sides.  Around it were four colored stones: blue, purple, red, and orange.  It was as large as my hand.  The second was a ring.  It was made of gold and silver twisted in bands together.  It had many small stones on it, and a slightly larger green one.  The third piece was a head-band.  It was like the ring with gold and silver and many small stones, but a large blue one in the front.  The last piece was a large armband.  It was made of gold with some silver twisted throughout.  There were three large stones on it: yellow, purple, and blue."

  
There was a stunned silence from the Dwarves.  For several minutes no one spoke.  Then they all gathered together into a circle and began talking and even shouting loudly in their own language.  Finally the chief Dwarf turned and spoke to the travelers.  With tears running down his face, he told them, "Truly this news is worth many tolls, and we are in your debt.  Surely what you have described is the Treasure of Dalan, made by Dalan, one of the ancient Dwarf chiefs.  His treasure disappeared many centuries ago, and no one has seen it since then.  All Dwarves know the description of the Four-Fold Treasure, although we tell it a little differently than you did!"  Then he chanted this poem:

  
In ancient days of old,

  
the treasure made so bold,

  
four pieces formed from gold— 

  
These the Treasure of Dalan.

  
Round as the sun the first,

  
great its stone as a fist,

  
its stone as water clearest—

  
This the brooch of Dalan.

  
The second round but smaller,

  
twisted all through with gold and silver,

  
adornéd by stone as a leaf but greener—

  
This the ring of Dalan.

  
The third adorned the head,

  
as the sky come down, 'tis said,

  
interlacéd with gold and silver thread— 

  
This the crown of Dalan.

  
The fourth for the arm was formed,

  
with three stones adorned,

  
the arm of a dwarf chief strengthened— 

  
This the armband of Dalan.

  
Fashioned by Dalan in mountain hall,

  
Dwarf-chief under mountain tall,

  
ages ago lost to his people all—

  
The Treasure of Dalan.

  
Then, turning to Tronyé, he demanded, "Take us to these Traders so that we can regain our lost treasure!"

  
So, accompanied by the Dwarves, they made their way to the Traders, who welcomed the now much larger company of travelers.  When the Traders heard the story of why the Dwarves were with them, they were astonished.

  
"They didn't even know that they had those pieces," said Tronyé.  "They have been here so long that the Traders don't know how the pieces got here."

  
The Dwarves and the Traders spent the next few hours bargaining for the lost Treasure of Dalan.  When they were finished, half of the Dwarves left to get the jewelry and coins to buy back the Treasures, and the others stayed to make sure that the Treasures did not leave.  The Traders were more than pleased.  They had traded things they didn't even know they had and had become much richer in the process.  The traders also took two bags of flowers.  In return, the trader who had given them directions before (his name was Utar) gave them five large sacks of fine woolen yarn, five wineskins of the finest yellow tree wine from the Golden Woods and a mule to carry it.

  
The next day the travelers left for home.  They had been gone a long time, it seemed, and much had happened.  For several days they retraced their steps.  Then one day it was only another day's journey until they reached home.  Before going to sleep that night, they sat and quietly talked to each other about all that had happened over the previous months.  They were no longer villagers who had never gone anywhere or done anything.  Then they slept.

  
Late the next evening the five reached their village.  Too tired to talk, they fell asleep.  The next morning after breakfast they told the other villagers what had happened to them.  Everyone wanted to see the flowers, so they took them out and showed them.  They sat there looking at the flowers.  Finally someone asked, "Shall we make the tea?"

  
Someone found a large cauldron, and others started the fire.  They filled the cauldron with water and heated it until it boiled.  Then they put handfuls of flowers into a sack and threw it into the hot water.  For four days steeped the flowers in the hot water.  Finally the time was over, and when they thought it was strong enough, they took out the sack with the flowers.  Then they let the tea cool down until it was warm but not hot.

  
So finally, after all that time, they were ready to have the dragon try the red flower tea.  It had cooled enough for him to drink, and he put his nose into the large cauldron with the tea.  He took a small slurp, then a larger one.  Then his eyes watered up, and his face twisted up.  Now that is a sight to see!  A dragon with a twisted face is an extremely rare sight, and one that few have seen.  It was almost frightening, but some of the children thought the dragon's face looked funny, and started giggling.  Trosel and Tronyé looked at each other.  Tronyé walked over to where the dragon was drinking.  "What is the matter?" she asked.

  
The dragon blinked slowly to get the tears out of his eyes.  "It's really sour," he replied slowly.  "It tastes really bad."

  
Trosel and Tronyé looked at each other again.  "What shall we do?" Trosel asked her.  They shrugged, helpless.  It seemed that all their work would be for nothing.  Trosel turned to the dragon.  "Can't you drink it, even if it tastes bad?  We think that it will help you get your fire."

  
The dragon looked at them sadly.  "You try and drink it," he said.  So Trosel took a cup and dipped it into the cauldron.  His face twisted up, and tears formed in his eyes.

  
"It's awful," he said.  "I don't know how anyone could drink that."

  
All the villagers looked at each other sadly.  Some of them started to leave when a voice came from the side.  "Sweeten it with honey!"  Everyone looked at the man who had spoken.  It was Dinyó, one of the quietest of the group.  Tronyé said, "Let's try it!"  Several children ran to get jars of honey.  They dumped it into the warm tea, and stirred it up.  Tronyé dipped her cup into it, and sipped it.

  
"It's really good!" she exclaimed.  Several others wanted to try it, so they borrowed her cup.  They all agreed with her and so carefully, the dragon drank . . . and drank . . . and drank until the cauldron was empty.  Then he burped really loudly and very long.  The children looked at each other and giggled.  They would like to burp like that, but their parents wouldn't let them.  Then, slowly, the dragon tipped his head back and breathed out . . . fire.  Fire!!  Fire!!

  
Everyone broke out cheering.  The dragon smiled very big.  This is also a rare sight, almost as rare as seeing one with a twisted up face.  Everyone laughed, and the dragon breathed out again.  Fire!  The dragon jumped into the air and flew around breathing fire.

  
The celebration continued for some time.  Finally, everyone got tired and went home.  The dragon curled up with his snout buried under his wing, and went to sleep.

  
The next morning dawned cloudy and wet.  Slowly the people of the village got up, washed, dressed, and ate.  Then they went out to where the dragon was.  The important question was all on their minds.  Was the bad breath still there, or was it gone?  As they approached the sleeping dragon, they sniffed the air.  So far, so good.   There was no bad breath that they could smell.  Finally, Tronyé, bold and brave young lady that she was, approached the sleeping dragon and smelled his breath.

  
"It smells alright to me," she told them quietly.

  
And so it was.  When the dragon woke up, his bad breath was gone.  A few years later it returned, and he drank more tea.  The following summer a wandering Ranger named Denelion stopped by the village and asked if they had solved their problem with the dragon's bad breath.  And they told him the entire story.  And Denelion wrote it down, and later told the Noldor lords at Himring, where they put the whole story in their library so that others could learn more about dragons.

  
And that's the end of the story except for three details.  Tronyé found the village very dull after her adventures, and when the next group of Traders came, she went with them.  Eventually she married the Trader Utar and lived with the Traders.  Later her cousin Isel joined her, and he married a Trader's daughter.  The four of them made red flower tea popular, and soon it became one of the most popular items for trading, as long as people remembered to sweeten it with honey.  That increased the number of people who kept bees and traded for honey.  So over all, the problem of the bad breath dragon had helped the trade in the area, and that was good for everyone!

  
The Dwarves became very friendly with the villagers, and the villagers found their lives easier because they had more items to make and trade.  The Dwarves told the villagers the tale of the Treasure of Dalan.  It is a long and interesting tale, and someday you should hear it.  The Traders came more often, too and life became more interesting for everyone.

  
The last detail is that the name of the village was changed.  It was now called the Village Where the Dragon Drank Flowers.  People came from many places to see the flower drinking dragon.  And when they came, they also drank the flower tea, and who knows, maybe they felt a little fiery afterwards too!

Once upon a time in the Land Between the Rivers there was a village with its very own dragon.  (Most dragons are evil, having been bred by Morgoth.  But just as some Men and Elves turned to serve him, so too a few dragons left Morgoth's service.  This is a tale of one of those.) Most dragons breathe fire, so this dragon was a very unusual dragon.  He couldn't breathe fire, and as a result, his breath smelled really bad.  In fact, it smelled so bad that the little boys and girls in the village hated to play around the dragon, even though one of his jobs was to guard them from danger.  On a really bad day, if he blew at the little boys and girls, his breath would knock them over and the bushes would die!

So the little boys and girls complained to their parents.  And their parents, because they were good parents and loved their boys and girls, listened, and talked to the dragon. They said, "You do a good job of guarding our children, but our children don't like to be near you.  Your breath is so very bad, it even kills the plants!  What can we do?"

The dragon was very sad.  "I know that my breath is bad.  The reason it is so bad is because I can't breathe fire.  Dragons clean their breath by breathing out fire.  I've never been able to do that." The villagers thought and talked among themselves.  They didn't know what to do.  They weren't experts on how to take care of dragons.  In fact, dragons hadn't lived with people for very long.  So they decided to send three of their strong young men to the Naldor in Hiring who lived with Maedhros  to ask what they could do.

The young men traveled very quickly to Himring.  In just four days they were there.  After they rested and ate, they went to find the wise Noldor lords. The first young man told the lords, "We have a dragon that guards the children in our village and protects them.  He is a very friendly dragon, but his breath is very bad.  It is so bad that the children do not like to be near him, and so they run away from him, and he can't guard them.  We're afraid that someone will be really badly hurt because he isn't there when they need him."

"Yes," said the second young man, "and, his breath is so bad that he kills the plants.  Why just last week we lost nearly an acre of wheat because of his breath!  We can't go on like this!"

"Well," said the one of the oldest and wisest of the Noldor lords.  "Why don't you just send him away and get a different dragon?"

"Hmmm," said the third and youngest of the young men.  He hadn't spoken yet, because it was polite to let the older people go first.  "We hadn't really thought of that, I will admit.  But this a kind dragon, and we do not want to hurt him.  And if we send him away, he could become very angry at us, and do a lot of damage."

"Yes, that is true," agreed the other young men. The Noldor were puzzled.  The young men were not happy, because what would they do if even the wise Noldor lords did not know what to do?  But they had an idea.  "Let us talk with you tomorrow evening, and we will have some ideas then," they told the three young men.

So the next day, they walked around Himring.  They saw the warriors training.  They saw archers with their bows shooting at  targets.  Men and women warriors attacked each other with swords and spears and axes.  They saw axes and knives thrown at trees.  Warriors jumped, and ran, and practiced falling.  The young men were amazed at all that they saw.  They tried to remember everything so that they could tell their families when they returned to their village. That evening they had dinner with the lords.  They were very nervous, because they thought that if they didn't mind their manners, they would be turned into foxes or rabbits.  But the lords were very kind.

They explained their ideas.  "First, we think that you should try old, moldy, smelly cheese," they informed the three young men, waving their hands in the air as they talked.  "We think that the stinky cheese might counter the smelly breath and cause the dragon to begin breathing fire."

A younger lord spoke up a few moments later.  "If that fails, and you must remember that we do not know," and he emphasized the word know, so that they would understand that they did in fact not know, "we do not in fact know that the smelly cheese will cure the dragon."

After the soup and the biscuits were finished, the eldest and wisest of the Noldor lords continued.  "If the cheese does not work, then you must try to scare the dragon.  I must tell you that this could be dangerous.  If you succeed and the dragon does in fact regain his fire, then scaring him could cause a forest fire, or anyone around him to be burned.  You must be very careful."  And he looked so serious, that the hearts of the three young men sank into their boots.

The youngest of the lords continued after a few minutes.  The three young men felt almost hopeless.  This young Elf lord had a twinkle in his eye.  He smiled.  "Don't be so glum!  There's another way, but it is long and difficult, but I am sure that it will work."  The three young men began to look more hopeful, and they felt their spirits brighten. "Yes," he continued, "I am sure that if the other methods do not work that this one will.  You must send five people to the mountains far to the East, to the northern part of the Ered Luin, beyond Mount Rerir.  There in the high meadows you will find a red flower.  You must pick as much of this as you can, and dry the flowers.  Then you must carry them back to your village and make a strong tea by boiling the dried flowers for four days.  When that is done, let the tea cool and give it to the dragon.  He will drink it, and then his fire will come."

"But why should we try the other methods if this one is sure to work?" asked the three young men.  They might be young, but they weren't stupid. The youngest lord laughed.  "You are so right to ask!  It will take you days, perhaps a week or more to travel Mt. Rerir, and some time to dry the flowers, and then more time to return.  Try the other methods first, but prepare for your journey.  Perhaps it will not be needed after all."

The three young men thanked the lords profusely, and went to bed.  Early the next morning, they left and returned home where the villagers waited for them eagerly. When they arrived home, they found six trees dead, two children who were unconscious from the dragon's breath, and four acres of wheat that had been burned as well.  The villagers had banished the dragon to a long distance from the village. The eldest of the three young men told them what the lords in Himring had instructed them.  

"First we should try feeding the dragon old moldy, smelly cheese.  Then if that does not work, we should try to scare the dragon.  But we must be very careful.  If his fire comes back, we could be badly burned."

The youngest of the three told them the third method.  "Five of us must go to the mountains far to the East.  There we will find red flowers.  We must collect and dry all that we can, and then bring them back and make a very strong tea and give it to the dragon." The villagers thought and were glad of the news.  They immediately made three plans.  The first plan was to find all of the old stinky cheese that they could.  There was a lot in that village, and by adding more to it from other villages, they were able to find two large baskets full.  The next plan was to find a way to scare the dragon.  The last plan was the one that they hoped they would not have to use.  They found four people ready to go.  They were the four young men.  One of them brought his younger sister, and so that made five.  They found four strong horses to ride, and two to carry their supplies.  They began to collect the food they needed, extra clothes and weapons.

Two days later they collected the two baskets full of cheese and took them out to where the dragon was.  The grass was brown, and the leaves had fallen off the nearby trees.  The problem was becoming more serious.  They looked at each other.  Who would approach the dragon?  His breath was so very bad that no one could stand being near him.  

Finally an old lady with a bad cold volunteered. "I can't smell anything anyway," she commented.  And so she took one basketful of cheese and dumped it on the ground in front of the dragon.  Then she went back and got the other basketful and did the same with it.

The dragon sniffed at it, then stuck out his long tongue.  "Yuck, yuck, yuck," he growled.  "This tastes horrible." "Yes, we know," explained the leader of the village elders.  "But the wizards think that it might make your fire come and your breath would not smell so bad." The dragon looked very doubtful.  "Maybe," he muttered, but he took a bite anyway.   After three big bites the first basketful was gone, but he was very thirsty.  He went off to the river and took a big drink.  When he returned he looked at the rest of the cheese, grumbled to himself, "I hope this works," and then ate the rest.  After a minute, he let a very big burp, and three people nearby fainted because his breath was still so bad!  The rest of the people who were standing there had to run quickly because the branches on the trees also fell off!

"So much for the first method," the leader of the village elders muttered to himself.  They then tried to find some brave people to scare the dragon.  After several days of looking and persuading, they found three very brave (or perhaps foolish) young men with nothing better to do.  Then they had to decide how to scare the dragon. They decided to wait for the dragon to get a drink of water at the river.  For three days they watched the dragon, and found that he liked to drink in the evening, right before he slept.  They decided that they would wait for him in the bushes near the river and rush out at him with fire torches, yelling and screaming as loudly as they could.  Surely that would scare the dragon! The next day they got shields to bang on, and prepared their fire torches.  They hid in the bushes in the late afternoon.  They lit their torches just as they saw the dragon coming down the path toward them.  Just as he passed the bushes, they rushed out yelling, screaming, waving their torches and banging on their shields.  The dragon was very frightened.  He was so very frightened that he ran right into the river!  Well, if he did breathe any fire, it went out in the cold water of the river.

The next day the dragon caught a cold.  Now a dragon can be a fierce creature, and an angry, fire-breathing dragon even terrifying.  But a dragon with a cold is just miserable, and angry and not much good at anything. Well, there was no hope for it.  The group would have to go to the far mountains.  By this time they had packed their food, and prepared themselves for the journey.  The next morning they set out. The entire village (including the very crabby, miserable dragon) saw the group off.  They watched them go until they were specks on the horizon.  No one knew how long it would be until they would see them again.

Now the leader of the group was named Trosel, and he was a hunter and a farmer.  His younger sister was good at cooking, and had very sharp eyes.  Her name was Tronyé.  The other three men were cousins of Trosel and Tronyé, and their names were Isel, Dinyó, and Lifel.  Isel was the oldest of the three, and Lifel was the youngest.  He was only fifteen, but he was very strong for his age. They followed the Gelion River as it went north.  They did not know it, but they passed through the ancient Kingdom of Carn.  That kingdom had ended in a battle long ago.  But they knew little of the history of the area, although they were descended from the Carnians.  Soon they had to cross the river so they could reach the Trader's Road on the other side of the river.  They didn't know it, but they were about to embark on a great adventure.  They found the ford across the river, and crossed it without any problems more serious than getting wet to their waists.  After their wetting, they made camp.  Lighting a fire would keep them warm and help them dry out.  Their first night on the road they slept well.  The next day they also made good time, and passed by the site of the Battle of Harniel that ended their ancestor's kingdom.  

That night they did not sleep as well, because they scared each other telling ghost stories.  They were after all young people, and they did enjoy scaring Tronyé, who was young and pretty, and liked to be scared. The next morning they met a group coming toward them.  Tronyé saw them first, because her eyes were the sharpest.  After her warning, they left the road and hid in a grove of trees near the road where they could see who it was that was passing by.  

"It's merchants and traders," exclaimed Isel as they passed by.  "I recognize the leader.  He was in our village last year."  Trosel agreed after a couple of minutes, and they left their hiding place and went toward the travelers.  The travelers stopped and drew their swords, thinking that they were about to ambushed by thieves or bandits. But when they saw Tronyé, and that the others were all young, and that they had not drawn their weapons, they put theirs down.

The leader of the traders called out, "Where are you from?" Trosel, as the leader of the group answered back, "We're from the Village with the Dragon with the Bad Breath!"  Such was the fame of their problem, that their village was known by that smelly name! The two groups came together and talked for some time.  The traders learned what goods the villagers would be interested in buying and trading for.  Trosel's group explained their errand.

The traders told them, "Continue on this road.  It will lead you to the north east.  You will come into Wide Pass, and in front of you far away you will see tall mountains.  Those are the mountains that you seek.  The roads fork there, and if you keep to the south, you will come to the Trader's Villages.  They can help you there, and give you directions for how to find the mountain valley that you need."  

So the two groups continued on their way. The next three days went by quickly and easily.  The group traveled on the road, and saw no one else.  The weather was beautiful.  They enjoyed the clear blue skies, and the warm weather.  In the afternoons it clouded over as the clouds built over the large forest to the west.  They thought that they might get wet, but the clouds sped on to the east, eager to dump their moisture on the mountains.  They went through Wide Pass, and saw the tall mountains to their north and south joining together.  The road they followed bent to the east as they approached the Trader's Villages, just as the trader's group had told them.  

As they went, they talked about their quest.  What would the mountains be like?  None of them knew.  None of them had ever been so far from home.  Trosel had traveled a lot because he was a hunter, and also when he had gone to Himring.  But most of his travels had taken him south.  There were clans of sheep and cattle lords, warring and feuding among themselves.  He did not know these northern lands.  At the end of the third day they reached the Trader's Villages. The night they reached the villages it began to rain.  The traders warned them that the roads would become mud very quickly, and that they would have to stay.  So that night and the next two days they spent in the villages until the roads had dried enough to travel on.  

They spent their time telling the traders about their quest.  The traders were very interested, and wanted the group to bring back extra flowers with them. "We will trade with you for them," they were told by one of the leaders of the traders.  "You never know when something will come in handy for us to have.  We have barns full of items that you might think were useless, but sooner or later, someone wants it.  Then all we have to do is find it!"  At that he laughed, and so did many of the others.  When the four were shown the barns, they laughed too.  The barns were huge, and there were many of them.  It could take days to find something. They also spent time studying the route that they had to take.  "Take this road east until it forks.  Then take the left fork until it dead ends.  A few miles north is another road that goes east into the mountains.  Take that one, and it will lead you into the high mountain valleys.  The Dwarves live there, and keep the roads in good order.  But they may charge you a toll if they find you."

At that Trosel looked upset, but would not say why.  Later he told his sister, "I never thought that we might need money."  She looked thoughtful, but did not answer. The next day she disappeared.  Trosel and his cousins searched frantically for her all day, but could not find her.  Exhausted, they fell asleep after the evening meal.  The next morning there she was, looking smug and happy, but she refused to tell where she had been, or what she had been doing.  That afternoon they set out again and camped that night at the junction of the road.  Ahead of them were the tall mountains, growing closer with every step.  Never had they seen such a sight. In the morning they went north, the mountains on their right.  They turned their heads often to look at them.  Shortly after mid-morning they moved east, and the road stretched ahead, winding up into ta distant canyon. The snow covered peaks towered behind.  That night they camped in the canyon.  The road was in very good shape, and there was lots of water in the nearby stream.  It was cold and clean water.  As they sat around their fire they talked. "So where were you two days ago?" asked Isel.  He and Tronyë were close friends.

She smiled, shook her head, and answered,  "I won't tell you yet.  But what I was doing was important for the Traders, and it will help us as well.  Trust me."

Well, they could get no more out of her than that.  So they talked of what they might expect, but to tell the truth, none of them really knew.  None had been in the mountains before.  Dinyó took out a penny whistle and began playing.  Soon Lifel and Isel were asleep.  The others joined in, and last Dinyó fell asleep in the middle of a tune, clutching the whistle. During the night they had visitors.  

Three passing Rangers saw them and stopped to look.  They covered the travelers where they slept, as they had not covered themselves up.  The nights are cool in the mountains.  Then the Rangers went on their way, as silent as owls' flight.  Their dark grey cloaks blended into the night and they disappeared. The next morning they awoke refreshed.  Nothing exciting happened to them that day.  They rode and rode, and the road twisted up into the canyon until at last they came to a meadow above where the trees grew.  Then again they slept because traveling in the mountains is very tiring.  Their horses grazed.  

Again that night they had visitors, or rather observers.  They were very short, stocky men with long beards. "What's this?!" exclaimed one.  "Visitors, and they hasn't announced themselves!" "You're right!" returned the second one.  "What shall we do with them?  Take them prisoner tonight?" "No, if they meant us harm they would not have brought a young woman with them," explained the first.  "We'll watch them until we see what they are doing."  And so they did. They slept late the next morning, and found their horses grazing when they finally woke.  

After a slow breakfast, they looked around them. The mountains were covered with flowers of all colors.  It was as if a rainbow had come down to earth.  No one could speak, because their breath was gone.  All around them towered snow and rock covered mountains, pushing up against the sky as if they were holding up the sky.  The only sound was the faint breeze and the rushing of the stream near them. Finally they began to move.  They found the red flowers and spent the rest of the day collecting them.  The next day they also collected them.  The next two days they dried the flowers.  The flowers were very dainty, and it was so sunny that they dried quickly. Finally they had collected as many bags as they could, and they were ready to leave.

* * * *

The journey back was easier, because they knew what to expect.  Going downhill can also be easier than going up.  Their journey was enjoyable.  They were young, and the trip was easy.  The mountain air was warm and crisp, and the scent of the mountain pines filled the air.  They continued mile after mile.  Suddenly, as they rounded a bend, a band of short, stocky men blocked their path.  The men were armed, and there were over a dozen of them.  The travelers stopped and looked at each other in great fear.  What should they do?  They were unarmed.  Isel, the oldest of the three brothers, and a very strong young man grasped his walking staff hard until the knuckles on his hand turned white.  

He took several steps forward, and quietly, but firmly, said, "Who are you, and what do you want?"  Lifel, the youngest of the cousins, stepped forward and stood next to his brother. The two brothers stood there watching the Dwarves.  The Dwarves didn't answer, but stood there holding their axes and spears.  Finally, a Dwarf with a very long bushy beard stepped forward in front of the others.  He had a golden helmet with a large boar on the top of the helmet.  

"Youze is trespassing here in theses mountains," he said gruffly.

The travelers looked at each other.  Finally Isel said firmly, "We saw no signs, we saw nothing that said that this was your land."

Dinyó, who had been quiet until now, spoke.  "Do not Dwarves live underground?  How then do you say that this is your land?"

The chief Dwarf did not speak.  The tallest of the Dwarves responded quietly.  "We claim the mountains above and below."  Now none of the Dwarves or travelers knew that a band of Rangers was watching them nearby, ready to step in if necessary and help the two groups solve their problem.  That's how Rangers worked.  Quiet and in the background, ready to do what others could not.

Isel asked, "What do you want?" The chief Dwarf told him, "We want a toll.  No one travels into the mountains without paying a toll."  

Now the travelers were annoyed and upset.  They looked at each other.   "I knew we would need money," said Tronyé.  "What shall we do?  We have no money!"

The Dwarves looked at each other, and began muttering angrily.  "What are you doing here, then, if youze has no money?"

Tronyé went to the front and stood by her two cousins.  "We mean you no harm," she said.  "We have come to gather the red flowers that grow here so that we can make a tea.  We want the tea so that it can make our dragon get its fire back.  It's breath is really bad, and its bad breath won't go away until it gets its fire."

The Dwarves scratched their heads.  This was a new story for them.  They hadn't heard such a story before.  They weren't too interested in flowers for a toll, either.  No one knew what to do. It was Tronyé that had the solution.  Speaking to the Dwarves and her fellow travelers, she began her story.  

"When we were on our way here we stopped in the Trader's Village.  I visited their trading barns.  Do you remember how full they were, and how everything was really jumbled?"  The other travelers did remember.  Trosel said, "Yes, and I remember that we couldn't find you for a long time." "Yes, that's right," she replied.  "I was in one of the barns.  I had found some very beautiful jewelry."  At the mention of jewelry the Dwarves' eyes got large.  Dwarves love jewelry, precious metals, and beautiful jewels.  "There were designs there that I had not seen before.  I gathered all the jewelry that I could find and sorted them by the designs that were on them."

The chief Dwarf asked Tronyé, "What were these designs like?" She looked at him, closed her eyes, and then replied, "There were four pieces that were the most interesting.  The first was a large brooch.  It was round and had a clear stone in the center, that was a rectangle, cut on the sides.  Around it were four colored stones: blue, purple, red, and orange.  It was as large as my hand.  The second was a ring.  It was made of gold and silver twisted in bands together.  It had many small stones on it, and a slightly larger green one.  The third piece was a head-band.  It was like the ring with gold and silver and many small stones, but a large blue one in the front.  The last piece was a large armband.  It was made of gold with some silver twisted throughout.  There were three large stones on it: yellow, purple, and blue."

There was a stunned silence from the Dwarves.  For several minutes no one spoke.  Then they all gathered together into a circle and began talking and even shouting loudly in their own language.  Finally the chief Dwarf turned and spoke to the travelers.  With tears running down his face, he told them, "Truly this news is worth many tolls, and we are in your debt.  Surely what you have described is the Treasure of Dalan, made by Dalan, one of the ancient Dwarf chiefs.  His treasure disappeared many centuries ago, and no one has seen it since then.  All Dwarves know the description of the Four-Fold Treasure, although we tell it a little differently than you did!"  

Then he chanted this poem:

In ancient days of old, the treasure made so bold, four pieces formed from gold—  These the Treasure of Dalan.

Round as the sun the first, great its stone as a fist, its stone as water clearest— This the brooch of Dalan.

The second round but smaller, twisted all through with gold and silver, adornéd by stone as a leaf but greener— This the ring of Dalan.

The third adorned the head, as the sky come down, 'tis said, interlacéd with gold and silver thread—  This the crown of Dalan.

The fourth for the arm was formed, with three stones adorned, the arm of a dwarf chief strengthened—  This the armband of Dalan.

Fashioned by Dalan in mountain hall, Dwarf-chief under mountain tall, ages ago lost to his people all— The Treasure of Dalan.

Then, turning to Tronyé, he demanded, "Take us to these Traders so that we can regain our lost treasure!" So, accompanied by the Dwarves, they made their way to the Traders, who welcomed the now much larger company of travelers.  

When the Traders heard the story of why the Dwarves were with them, they were astonished. "They didn't even know that they had those pieces," said Tronyé.  "They have been here so long that the Traders don't know how the pieces got here." The Dwarves and the Traders spent the next few hours bargaining for the lost Treasure of Dalan.  When they were finished, half of the Dwarves left to get the jewelry and coins to buy back the Treasures, and the others stayed to make sure that the Treasures did not leave.  

The Traders were more than pleased.  They had traded things they didn't even know they had and had become much richer in the process.  The traders also took two bags of flowers.  In return, the trader who had given them directions before (his name was Utar) gave them five large sacks of fine woolen yarn, five wineskins of the finest yellow tree wine from the Golden Woods and a mule to carry it. The next day the travelers left for home.  They had been gone a long time, it seemed, and much had happened.  For several days they retraced their steps.  Then one day it was only another day's journey until they reached home.  Before going to sleep that night, they sat and quietly talked to each other about all that had happened over the previous months.  They were no longer villagers who had never gone anywhere or done anything.  Then they slept. Late the next evening the five reached their village.  Too tired to talk, they fell asleep.  

The next morning after breakfast they told the other villagers what had happened to them.  Everyone wanted to see the flowers, so they took them out and showed them.  They sat there looking at the flowers.  Finally someone asked, "Shall we make the tea?" Someone found a large cauldron, and others started the fire.  They filled the cauldron with water and heated it until it boiled.  Then they put handfuls of flowers into a sack and threw it into the hot water.  For four days steeped the flowers in the hot water.  Finally the time was over, and when they thought it was strong enough, they took out the sack with the flowers.  Then they let the tea cool down until it was warm but not hot. So finally, after all that time, they were ready to have the dragon try the red flower tea.  It had cooled enough for him to drink, and he put his nose into the large cauldron with the tea.  He took a small slurp, then a larger one.  Then his eyes watered up, and his face twisted up.  Now that is a sight to see!  A dragon with a twisted face is an extremely rare sight, and one that few have seen.  It was almost frightening, but some of the children thought the dragon's face looked funny, and started giggling.  

Trosel and Tronyé looked at each other.  Tronyé walked over to where the dragon was drinking.  "What is the matter?" she asked. The dragon blinked slowly to get the tears out of his eyes.  "It's really sour," he replied slowly.  "It tastes really bad." Trosel and Tronyé looked at each other again.  "What shall we do?" Trosel asked her.  They shrugged, helpless.  It seemed that all their work would be for nothing.  Trosel turned to the dragon.  "Can't you drink it, even if it tastes bad?  We think that it will help you get your fire."

The dragon looked at them sadly.  "You try and drink it," he said.  So Trosel took a cup and dipped it into the cauldron.  His face twisted up, and tears formed in his eyes. "It's awful," he said.  "I don't know how anyone could drink that." All the villagers looked at each other sadly.  Some of them started to leave when a voice came from the side.  

"Sweeten it with honey!"  Everyone looked at the man who had spoken.  It was Dinyó, one of the quietest of the group.  Tronyé said, "Let's try it!"  Several children ran to get jars of honey.  They dumped it into the warm tea, and stirred it up.  Tronyé dipped her cup into it, and sipped it. "It's really good!" she exclaimed.  Several others wanted to try it, so they borrowed her cup.  They all agreed with her and so carefully, the dragon drank . . . and drank . . . and drank until the cauldron was empty.  

Then he burped really loudly and very long.  The children looked at each other and giggled.  They would like to burp like that, but their parents wouldn't let them.  Then, slowly, the dragon tipped his head back and breathed out . . . fire.

 Fire!!  Fire!!

Everyone broke out cheering.  The dragon smiled very big.  This is also a rare sight, almost as rare as seeing one with a twisted up face.  

Everyone laughed, and the dragon breathed out again.  Fire!  The dragon jumped into the air and flew around breathing fire. The celebration continued for some time.  Finally, everyone got tired and went home.  The dragon curled up with his snout buried under his wing, and went to sleep. The next morning dawned cloudy and wet.  Slowly the people of the village got up, washed, dressed, and ate.  Then they went out to where the dragon was.  The important question was all on their minds.  Was the bad breath still there, or was it gone?  As they approached the sleeping dragon, they sniffed the air.  So far, so good.   There was no bad breath that they could smell.

 Finally, Tronyé, bold and brave young lady that she was, approached the sleeping dragon and smelled his breath. "It smells alright to me," she told them quietly. And so it was.  When the dragon woke up, his bad breath was gone.  A few years later it returned, and he drank more tea.  The following summer a wandering Ranger named Denelion stopped by the village and asked if they had solved their problem with the dragon's bad breath.  And they told him the entire story.  And Denelion wrote it down, and later told the Noldor lords at Himring, where they put the whole story in their library so that others could learn more about dragons. And that's the end of the story except for three details.  

Tronyé found the village very dull after her adventures, and when the next group of Traders came, she went with them.  Eventually she married the Trader Utar and lived with the Traders.  Later her cousin Isel joined her, and he married a Trader's daughter.  The four of them made red flower tea popular, and soon it became one of the most popular items for trading, as long as people remembered to sweeten it with honey.

 That increased the number of people who kept bees and traded for honey.  So over all, the problem of the bad breath dragon had helped the trade in the area, and that was good for everyone! The Dwarves became very friendly with the villagers, and the villagers found their lives easier because they had more items to make and trade.  

The Dwarves told the villagers the tale of the Treasure of Dalan.  It is a long and interesting tale, and someday you should hear it.  The Traders came more often, too and life became more interesting for everyone. The last detail is that the name of the village was changed.  It was now called the Village Where the Dragon Drank Flowers.  People came from many places to see the flower drinking dragon.  

And when they came, they also drank the flower tea, and who knows, maybe they felt a little fiery afterwards too!


End file.
